Help In Auto Generating Item Code

Hi guys,

I am new to programming and sqlserver 2000. i use sql2000 as my database server...

I have a problem on auto-generating medicine codes. and i hope someone would help me with my script.

as you noticed i declared two variables (@id and @code). I am having a problem in generating @code... i would just like to create an autogenerated medicines_code from another field from another table (hosp_counter.counter_id)

here is how my medicines_code should look like ('MEDS34') "where 34 is from a counter_id in hosp_counter table...

but it only creates a medicines_code = 'M' (below is the result)

34(this is from counter_id)M(this is the autogenerated code)AUTOGENERATE11111010110012110010000000018/29/2007 11:29:46 AM1/1/19001/1/1900

here is my script in autogenerating medicine code...

set xact_abort on
begin transaction
declare @Code as varchar
select @Code =
(select 'MEDS' + CAST
(Counter_ID + 1 as varchar (50))
from Hosp_Counter where table_description = 'Medicines')
declare @ID as integer
select @ID = Counter_ID + 1
from Hosp_Counter
where table_description = 'Medicines'
select @ID
INSERT INTO Hosp_Medicines
(medicines_id,
medicines_code,
medicines_description,
medicines_specification,
medicines_genericname,
medicines_drugclass,
PhicCategory,
medpreparation,
medicines_prohibited,
medicines_trade,
medicines_NoneTrade,
medicines_taxable,
medicines_PhicCovered,
medicines_AmountCovered,
medicines_Discountable,
medicines_SmallUnit,
medicines_BigUnit,
medicines_AverageCostSmall,
medicines_AverageCostBig,
medicines_WeightedAverageCost,
medicines_weight,
medicines_conversion,
medicines_LowStockLevel,
medicines_OverStockLevel,
medicines_LowSalesReference,
AllowStat,
status,
CreateBy,
UpdateBy,
DeleteBy,
CreateDate,
UpdateDate,
DeleteDate)
VALUES
(@ID,
@code,
'AUTOGENERATE2',
'',
1,
1,
1,
1,
0,
1,
0,
1,
1,
0,
0,
1,
2,
1,
100,
100,
0,
0,
0,
0,
0,
0,
1,
'',
'',
'',
'8/29/2007 11:31:25 AM',
'',
'')
select @ID
Update Hosp_Counter set Counter_ID = @ID
where Table_Description = 'Medicines'
commit transaction

any help is very much appreciated!

'confused'
Joel